I will wait to take Qualzar’s turn until the next update post.
Thanks Hawkmoon! And I think we all are understanding about the delay. For my own sake, if no one else’s, I’m probably not going to go until after the current phase of Cosmic Captive ends.
Hope it's okay that I used Skizza's Game of Afterline. (I think Agent Eclipse has indicated before that it's okay?) I didn't want to risk the 2/7 chance of losing a Larva to the Curse of Poisoning.
So I think that leaves only Thriae Hive 3 with a Stolen Larva.
Posting outside of of my Estra alias intentionally here.
I have been BRing a Season 3 playthrough myself that started during OutPost, and the team has just finished Adventure 3 (which we're on the final scenario for).
Originally a 5 person team, a player had to drop towards the end of Adventure 2. And unfortunately, amidst the setup and beginning of 3-4A, two more players have had to drop for personal reasons, leaving the table with 2 remaining players.
I'm going to raise the possibility in both of these tables that we merge these two tables together, and see what the interest is. Once this table has completed this scenario, they will both be at the exact same point in the Adventure Path, with a total of 6 players and two potential BRs.
Hawkmoon might appreciate the break from BRing this table, and I am confident I can BR and play without spoiling myself - or if that's a concern, I can drop out as a player and find an opportunity another time to continue playing as Estra.
Please let me know your individual thoughts (including the BR's!). It's my hope that bringing two tables together will save on the total effort to BR them both, and I'm not sure the 2 remaining players on my table want such a small group for a Season playthrough.
I’d warmly welcome 2 more to the table!
My only concern would be about Yewstance simultaneously box-running and playing. Speaking for myself, when I’m BRing, I do find myself needing to peek “behind the curtain”, for deck manipulation and villain escapes at least. (I backup box-ran for a week for a game I was in, and while I got by for a few turns until the box-runner returned, I would have been leery about doing a whole game.)
Also, I wouldn’t want to lose Yewstance as a player.
Brainstorming: if Hawkmoon’s workload is a concern, perhaps there is a different game of Hawkmoon’s that Yewstance could take over running instead, one which he wouldn’t be a player in?
(Although, if Hawkmoon’s workload is an issue, that probably deserves a discussion unto itself.)
Good idea. Personally, besides the limitation of certain scenario powers, the only real time a BR will get unfair information is villain escapes - and I feel I can overcome that by independently reasoning where I would go, given my skillset and the team.
But subconscious bias is, of course, subconscious, and thus I can fully believe I'm making independent decisions when I'm not.
I should, however, also note that this table has been significantly slower than what my other table is used to. That table took a full break during Assault on Absalom (due to some players using their characters during the special) and started months after this table, for probably a total of almost 4 months in total of less playtime, and yet they have surpassed us in scenarios completed... and they had to re-play a scenario due to a loss from timeout.
There was one particular scenario we did on this table, during which as a BR I had overseen 3 scenarios completed on the other table. I feel that the two remaining players of my table (AAUGHWHY and bigguyinblack) would find the current rate of posting for this table unsatisfying as a result, especially given that they'll be jumping to a 6 player team. As a result, I'm hoping for a solution that would also increase overall posting rate, if such a solution exists.
Obviously Hawkmoon needs to weigh in.
And I'm hoping that the posting slowdown was because of EOY holidays/Cosmic Captive (which moreover had some unusual database admin needs), and so we could within the week return to our previously healthy posting rate.
I'd also like Agent Eclipse to weigh in.
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I will say that given a choice of a relatively swift 2 player game and a 6 player game where I get one turn every week or two I prefer the former.
I think if Yewstance is willing to take over as BR and Hawkmoon doesn't have the free time he once did it is worth doing.
Someone might need to PM Agent Eclipse. Hopefully he will check in more often if the game's pace picks up.
That sounds like a perfect solution!
I'm content with the solution; following this scenario we can bring in my table (Darago/AAUGHWHY and Lini/Bigguyinblack) and continue as a party of 6. Everyone (except Cogsnap, technically) will have completed the same scenarios.
I ask that I'm given access to the game soon, if possible, and set a formal/semiformal agreed time to wait before I step in to produce an update. Having to work out how to handle a handover at the time it becomes necessary might just entail further delays if there's some disruption preventing Hawkmoon from posting.
I would like to raise that I do have a firm hope that the overall rate of posting can distinctly increase across the table (myself included - especially since this effectively drops my responsibilities of BRing another table by default, freeing up more time). As bigguyinblack/Lini raised earlier, a very slow pace is not ideal to our new players.
(And, again, I'd strongly appreciate Agent Eclipse to weigh in. Does he have any issues with introducing 2 new players, and is he alright to continue posting, given the period of inactivity?)
STRENGTH: Estra and Lini can both develop brief, strong Strength skills with their powers and/or Honaire.
DEXTERITY: Skizza's specialty, followed by Cogsnap's.
CONSTITUTION: Darago and Estra can develop competent Constitution/Fortitude checks.
INTELLIGENCE: Darago's specialty, with Qualzar and Estra having supporting Intelligence capabilities.
WISDOM: Lini and Estra's specialty.
CHARISMA: Qualzar and Estra's specialty.
Of particular note, Lini and Estra are both Divine casters with an enormous degree of flexibility in skillset.
Still no d12s
Estra could relinquish the dunce cap
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** spoiler omitted **
I don't get the reference to the dunce cap, besides looking like the pointy hats of stereotypical gnomes. But man, I didn't even think of the gnome ratio being maintained (and none of them are even using Ultimate Wilderness, so no "Gnome-trait matters" cards). You're all going to drive Estra to an early grave.
(I'd make a comment about Darago being another death-obsessed spellcaster, but actually I think he'll get along much better with Qualzar, as we'll see in gameplay.)
As for the lack of 1d12s; we're just getting the real Mummy's Mask experience. The MM Base Set had a grand total of 3/11 characters with a 1d12 skill (Estra, Ezren & Simoun). In the two MM parties I've been in (with base set characters) there was never a 1d12 used; it almost makes me wonder why they shipped the set with a d12 die. XD
I don't get the reference to the dunce cap, besides looking like the pointy hats of stereotypical gnomes.
Just tongue-in-cheek about how Estra was a mere INT d8 among a party of INT d10s.
Though even Lini's new lowest INT d6 nevertheless has Knowledge +3.We're just a bunch of smartypants.
Reminds me of my MM Base Set 'main' group IRL. Zadim, Damiel, Channa Ti and Ahmotep. 3 Acid/Poison themed characters, and a whole team of characters who can support each other, particularly at the same location, good skill coverage (weakest at Charisma/Diplomacy)...
... but also with all 4 party members maxing out their Intelligence skill feats. XD
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It's been a few days since we finished the scenario, and almost a week since the last BR update or post, so I'd like to again raise a suggestion that I'm given access to the game earlier, rather than later.
I will be open and state that I'm considering simply moving my character to the other table, if the players there like the idea. Even after the pace of gameplay was just raised as a concern, not much has changed. As such, I'm not sure the pace will be enough for me to post a turn as Estra more than once every week or two, which is just not fast enough for me to get invested and in the mindset of an ongoing scenario; sorry.
Qualzar could use the Item 3 (Mist Horn).
Though could also take the Weapon 1, for trading purposes.
More excitingly: role + power feat!!
I’ll choose last. I don’t think I have any good items to upgrade ‘till 4, Or weapon 1s, my only spell slot is remove curse which I am NOT getting rid of, and I like my blessings of the elements. So, I don’t need the loot and I probably won’t upgrade.
Also, if my calculations are currect, I get a power feat, which I have to choose as hand size. Bringing me up to hand size 7
I'm not interested in the new loot either. And since Qualzar's getting the Item 3 upgrade, I won't be taking the Sun Falcon Pectoral.
Me and Darago just finished 3-4A so this will be a replay for us.
Lini would like to visit the Smiths of Wati before we start.
If they don't cough up a decent weapon I'm interested in the Natron Fang.
Not interested in any other loot.
Upgrades I'm looking for in approximate order of interest.
Spell 3 - Restorative Touch
Ally 3 - Vampire Bat
Spell 4 - Cloudburst
If anyone is unfamiliar with the RotR version of Lini her main gimmick is revealing an animal ally to add to any roll she makes. Currently 1d4 +3.
This makes a lot of easy checks automatic and gives her a chance at some of the harder checks.
She is mostly a spellcaster but I've been using a weapon for easier fights.
And any of my blessings or spells are available without asking unless I specify otherwise.
Posting outside of my Estra alias here.
So a few things to note.
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1. New Players
AAUGHWHY // Darago and bigguyinblack // Lini will be joining us on this table shortly, bringing us up to 6 players. Once they fully join, we can discuss strategy and loot choices further with them (note that taking additional explorations is much more important in 6 player parties, but running out of cards in your deck is far less likely), but the following will need to be discussed, at minimum.
For those of you unfamiliar with the characters: Darago is an Intelligence-focused wizard/necromancer who is particularly strong against Undead, and can draw monsters into his hand to buff his later checks, and Lini (RotR) is a Wisdom-focused Druid with an extremely high flexibility in skillset and extremely powerful Divine magic, at the tradeoff of hand size compared to most dedicated casters.
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2. Myself as Co-BR
As previously mentioned, I now have access to the game state, and I already own the PDFs for this Season. I will endeavor to involve myself in BR duties under the following circumstances (more or less exclusively).
I'll give a longer period of time for Hawkmoon run BR actions which would give me a lot of information as a player, such as processing a villain escape (though if I'm honest, I'm pretty good at just not consciously recording things like a villain's location to memory).
I will sometimes be using a script developed by skizzerz to improve the formatting of scenario updates I generate, which fixes a lot of newline issues in card powers, makes the updates more compact, makes random cards easier to access and bolds certain terms, such as the Trigger trait. I may also modify scenario and adventure rules to make use of bold terms to draw players' attention to key timing or mechanics, if there's no issue with me doing so.
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3. Loot & Traders
Firstly, I'll be updating the Loot Tracker, the Trader Tracker and the Party Hands/Shared Deck Handler sheets to incorporate our new players soon. This may involve a shuffle of Loot cards, as mentioned above.
Secondly, I'd like to raise a request.
Technically, the Card Guild Guide and the PFSACG Trader Rules don't infer any kind of order for the sequence of players making Trades and Loot choices. BRs approach this in different ways - both Hawkmoon and I tend towards "it's not defined, so you can make your Trades and Loot choices in any order you want". However, it is easier to track if it's done all at once (especially given that non-Sunburst Market traders are now a lot better, and we have a full 6 player party), so I'd encourage the following to occur each scenario:
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4. This particular scenario
This scenario features a deck of Location cards. When a location is closed, the closing player should draw 2 new locations (ones that haven't been banished or displayed), banish one, and summon and build the other. In order to speed up gameplay, I ask that any player who closes a location at least draws 2 new locations and chooses which one to build - they can even continue their turn, if they want.
For my other table, I already created a post that details all of the locations you can draw, and assigned a number to each, so you can roll a die to draw 2 randomly. (Note that the "?" in some of their card lists should actually just be Monsters.)
This table doesn't use Hangouts, so unless there's a consensus to change that, it's important for AAUGHWHY and bigguyinblack to note that the Discussion thread will remain our primary method of communication.
Can't hurt to have a Hangout though.
My schedule varies a lot but when I'm lucky I get to sleep from about 10:00 PM to 6:00 AM EST. When I'm awake I'm online most of the time.
Hi Everyone!
Like was said before, I'm playing Darago. He's pretty combat focused, but can potentially shore up his weaknesses once he gets some monsters in his deck (and with my new Power feat, now you can too!).
Unless I specifically say something, all of my resources are available to use by anyone; I'll try to put a TLDR of what they do in the notes so you don't have to look it up.
My schedule has been pretty packed lately, but I ususally am able to at least push out a quick post around 8 PM - 2 AM PST. Hopefully, my schedule will calm down in the near future and I'll be available more times throughout the day.
Regarding Loot: I've been taking Mask of the Forgotten Pharaoh. The flat bonus to my primary stat and one of my secondaries is good enough. The damage reduction and curse removal is a cherry on top.
Thanks Yewstance for helping out! And official welcome to Bigguyinblack and AAUGHWHY!
Qualzar doesn’t offer any intrinsic support: just whatever boons I might have on hand.
I do have a free evade, so Qualzar is in great shape for this scenario.
I generally have no preference for turn order, although Agent Eclipse goes immediately before me in another game, so it’s often convenient to have Skizza go immediately before Qualzar. I’m in Central-US, but there isn’t really a pattern to my posting time. I’ll often post via mobile.
I’m very interested in Tablet of Languages Lost and Kafar.
Depending on the scenario, I might also take Remove Curse and/or Elemental Treaty.
(I had been taking Natron Fang and Sun Falcon Pectoral, but with my new power feat no longer need the former, and currently don’t have the Item slots to take the latter.)
I’m not using an Ultimate deck with Qualzar. But because of traders and his having all boon types, I’m nevertheless pretty flexible on upgrades.
And fair warning, Qualzar is Chaotic Evil. Where the Evil might be in the form of truly horrendous puns.
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The Loot Tracker, the Trader Tracker and the Party Hands/Shared Deck Handler sheets have all been updated, including a new section so that I can add Summoned Banes there without access to the Campaign Header, if needed.
Estra has a strong preference for Spear of the Watchful Guardian and Neferekhu. Whilst there may be other loot she likes (Hand of the Honest Man and/or Mask of the Forgotten Pharaoh, for example), only the Spear and head-in-a-cage are actually significantly (and uniquely) valuable for her.
I'll soon be exploiting Codex of Conversations along with a role power that lets me draw cards from passing Charisma checks, so I have a very strong preference in acquiring an Item 4 as soon as possible (preferably during this scenario). I will happily give up any other Deck Upgrade, even for the remainder of the entire adventure, in return for first pick of an Item 4 ASAP, if that's possible.
And I can confirm. I still haven't forgiven Qualzar for the Kohl of Uncanny Discernment pun.
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Any reason why gameplay would be giving updates but not discussion?
Nothing from the 18th forward has apparently been showing on my campaign tab for this discussion. I wouldn't have even noticed had it not been for new players popping up in the gameplay and reference to strategy here.
Also I live/work/school in Tokyo and sleep Midnight-8AM JST. My most convenient posting time is 7PM-Midnight JST. I do not know if it is campaign tools or something that causes me to have update issues through the forums but the other group I am in has a Hangout which lets me know when I am likely not getting updates. However idk if I am even still in the group as I haven't even known about the discussion for weeks now. Either way.
The forum is buggy at times but I'm not sure why one would give you updates but the other wouldn't. I made a Hangout for this table if you want to join it.
https://hangouts.google.com/group/uVBb7X3wv4SP3c6j1
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You're definitely still in the group, Skizza, and I hope you have no issue with 2 new players.
I've no clue why Discussion wouldn't be updating you - I think you can selectively turn updates off for specific threads (pressing the 'X' next to the update notification, perhaps?), but if that's happened accidentally I don't know how you'd remedy that. Maybe posting here turned it back on?
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Based on the availabilities listed (still waiting for VampByDay), I note that my posting availability opens up a bit after Skizza's ends, and Darago's opens up a good while later in the day from both of us...
1. Skizza
2. Estra
?.
?.
5. Darago
?.
VampByDay/Cogsnap can slot himself into the above list as preferred, and EmpTyger/Qualzar and bigguyinblack/Lini can fill the remaining two spots easily based on their high degree of availability.
Once Skizza and Cogsnap finalize their deck upgrades (and Trader Cost Reduction), then post their preferred Trader, then I'll ask an admin to set the turn order and I'll populate the Traders. Almost ready to begin!
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New players are definitely fine with me and my apologies about my sporadic posting rate the past adventure. Settling in to a new country has taken longer than I expected.
Definitely going to check for those X's as I hid a few campaigns that never went inactive it still shows in my list though. *shrug* Server goblins have certainly done weirder things on these forums.
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Upgraded Wheellock Pistol into Shock Musket +1.
I will use my boon on Falsin and visit him as well.
I'll go after Estra, that's fine.
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Gotcha, I'll put in a request to set the turn order thusly...
1. Skizza
2. Estra
3. Cogsnap
4. Lini
5. Darago
6. Qualzar
Cogsnap, I'll still need your choice of Trader (both the boon to decrease the cost of a Trader of your choice, then the choice of which Trader you're attending) before we can start. If you don't want to go to a Trader, just pick one that someone else has, which will help them by providing more options.
While waiting for VampByDay's trader choices, could we get the Hadden Hoppert options? (Since Cogsnap can't go there.) In case AAUGHWHY and I need to discuss who gets what.
Same for Smiths of Wati.
I’ll go to the smiths of wati. I never go to traders, so I guess I’ll decrease the cost of. . . I dunno, which trader gives you items?
The traders are listed on a tab in the campaign sheet. (Not sure how to do a direct like while on mobile, sorry.)
The Item trader is Falsin Deek, which is one of the ones Cogsnap has unlocked! And Skizza I’m sure would appreciate the company.
Since Cogsnap can't go to the Smith's of Wati, for the time being I've listed Cogsnap as going to Falsin Deek, and having decreased its cost for him. I've listed this all on the Trader spreadsheet (a reminder that I can't adjust the Campaign Header, but please raise any requests in Discussion for Hawkmoon to handle).
What’s Darago looking at?
For Qualzar:
1st choice: Ice Storm; and if I do, I could swap out an attack spell for the Loot Elemental Treaty, which seems especially useful with only 1 open location at a time.
2nd choice: Channel the Gift. I personally don’t have much use for, but could take it to provide support. (Ie dig up healing spells that get recharged away to avoid summoned henchmen.)
Last choice: Mistform. The evasion is kind of redundant for Qualzar, but would provide help with barriers.